“Apart from Malaga, qualifying is open to any possibility. It will go down to the end,” Montolivo told Sky Sport Italia.

“Malaga caused us problems and that is their style, but compared to the first game we took the initiative and dominated with a series of chances.

“Unfortunately we conceded against the run of play with Eliseu finding that gap. It’s a shame, as we had been doing well.

“Their players moved between the lines and that caused us problems. The Coach told us to be wary of that movement and then set off, so in midfield we had to be more careful than against Chievo.”

Milan adopted the 4-2-3-1 system, which had also been used against Chievo at the weekend.

“I think our best performances this season have been with this system. We have the players to take a different approach too, but right now we need a sense of certainty.

“I believe we still require a faster tempo and a little more initiative in the final third to unlock opposition defences. We had several chances today, but perhaps could’ve done with being a little more precise in our finishing.”